Land Rover TDI 300 Swap Time

#1
Well, this has been in the making for years but the right time for it has arrived. I will be pulling out the glitchy rover V8 from my 96 Discovery and be putting in the Rover TDI 300. Parts have been purchased and are enroute. The new TDI-spec transmission is waiting for me to pick it up in Charlotte and the freshly rebuilt engine along with the rest of the goodies I'll need for the swap are en route on the freight ship OOCL NETHERLANDS somewhere in the North Atlantic. It should be a straight forward swap as the only foreseeable fab work is new engine mounts and new exhaust. Everything is stock parts and should just bolt/drop in. Then there's a little bit of wiring loom splicing to be done to get the A/C and Gauges to work, but it won't be impossible. Other things that will be getting done are rebuild/fix broken parts on my milemarker winch, new fairlead, new headlight washer pump, pre-oil system, and ABS delete. Here's a photo of the Cargo ship which is carrying my engine and other parts across the Atlantic courtesy of marinetraffic.com
I'll update as the project progresses. I plan to start tearing into it starting next month.
 
#2
Here's some pics from Duncan (the guy doing the rebuild for me, acquiring the parts, and packing them in a container) during the rebuild.

Fresh paint, new rings, and clean pistons
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Passenger side of engine with vacuum pump and fuel lift pump and injection pump installed
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Front of engine, water pump at far right, timing belt pulleys on the left.
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Timing cover installed, serpentine belt pulleys installed with A/C idler and tensioner being the two small pulleys on the left
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#3
Very sweet! Make sure to throw some sliders on too while you have it sitting, cause I want to see this thing wheeling to its full potential with the new diesel torque!
 
#6
Well, $430ish dollars later the engine has cleared customs and is on its way to Charlotte, NC :eeek:. Now to see how much the transmission will cost me in customs. If I were to do it again, I would have had the transmission shipped to Duncan who rebuilt the engine and had him put it into the same crate. That way I would have only had to pay customs on one package instead of two. Oh well, chalk it up to experience I guess. :roll:
 
#7
Good luck! If you need any help, holler at me. I know two guys here in ATL that have done the swap. One of them lives on the same block as I, I pass that truck everyday.

Did you also get the 1.4 transfer case? Word on the street is that the 1.4 or swap to 4.11 diffs keeps everything happy gear-wise. However the truck on my block has 7.50x16 XZLs on it, so I bet with stock tires the 1.2 is fine.

Also go look on expedition portal. There is a guy who just put an Audi turbo on his TDI 300. He reports awesome power and boost. Considering I would rather have awesome power and pretty good MPG, I would go this route. Yes, I would sacrifice 3 MPG for the ability to accelerate up an on-ramp.

I will also check with my friend to see what caused his to overheat. I have a feeling it is operator error but will just double check.

Lastly, it looks like we will be filling a container sometime in early June with parts. I'm getting some nit-picky crap for my 109 but I know a couple of engines and transmissions are coming over as well. I'll also be trying to get in a set of Defender 130 rims. Holler if you need something!
 
#8
Thanks LR Max, if I run into any big issues or need something on that container I'll drop you a line. I am still going to run the 1.2 transfer case. From what I had found the 110 Defenders and MOD Defender 90s received the 1.4 transfer case, but it was hard to tell if the Discos got the 1.4 transfer case as well. Somewhere I was looking was saying they only got the 1.2 ratio with either gas or diesel. Anyhoo, I am running 235 85r16 tires and don't plan to go any bigger, so I'll see how it drives at first, if I"m not happy with it, Ashcroft makes a 3.75:1 R&P set for the diffs and I'll probably regear with that. That ratio will bring the truck back to stock overall ratios with that tire size. Anyone know where I can find cable lockers for a Rover. That would be what I would want to put into the truck when I regear but they seem to be very rare. I know KAM made some for some time.

As far as squeezing rock sliders into the build, the budget is tight and they will have to wait. Also on the todo list is to replace the floor/rocker panels on the driver and passenger sides from the where the a pilar meets the floor to the top of the wheel wells. Methinks the previous owner had driven this thing pretty deep, or splashed alot on the beach at Daytona as the rocker panels are really starting to blister and I recently had the windshield frame redone because it was all but gone rusted away. My plan is after the rust on the floors is fixed, I can put some effort into some rock sliders. Probably will be next summer's project.
 
#9
Okay, I picked up the parts from the warehouse where they were clearing customs in Charlotte a couple weeks ago. The transmission got here with no issues, but the engine shipment lost all the air intake plumbing somewhere along the way, so the shipper is going to be sending another set over. Other than that, everything else is there including and A/C compressor, which I wasn't expecting as I was told they are very rare as most TDI 300s were not built with A/C. Last weekend I spent cleaning up the garage to organize all the parts and get some more space to work in.
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Something else that has arrived is the preoiling system from Masterlube. This will avoid dry starts as the truck will mostly be driven on the weekends and will sit for the rest of the week. Hopefully it will keep the turbo bearings and main bearings going strong for a good long time.

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#10
Well, today I dove into the project. I had planned to start working at removing the transmission and see how far I got. I ended up getting a late start around noon and I surprised myself by getting the transmission out from under the truck by 5:30-6pm.

Here's all the mess you gotta pull off before the transmission can come out:
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Here's the transmission coming out from under the truck:
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Tomorrow I plan to start working on getting the engine out. We'll see how far I get.
 
#11
Nice and good luck! I'm glad to see you got an A/C equipped unit. As you said, they are hard to come by.

Also avoid KAM lockers. One of my friends has had the pleasure of dealing with KAM. They make giant pieces of crap. Nothing positive can be said about their product. If you need to regear, just go detroit rear/trutrac front.

This makes me miss my old Disco 1.
 
#12
Well, didn't get any work done yesterday due to rain but today, despite the rain, I did get the engine removed.

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The engine crane doesn't roll in the gravel so I had to use the Jetta to move the truck:

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Next step is removing everything that will not be needed with the new engine.
 
#15
The only thing wrong with that engine is that it leaks, and I'm not sure where out of. It seems just to ooze. I had been fighting front and rear engine seals going very stiff in 50k miles or so. The heads were just redone last fall and the cross hatching was visible on the cylinder walls. The main bearings have been replaced and it has good oil pressure. I have all the maintenance records on it too for the past 100k miles. A/C still worked too. The engine control computer seemed to be going as it would experience hot start problems even though every sensor had been replaced. Thats the main reason for the swap, the electrical/ECU problems, or at least I attributed them to being electrical/ecu problems.
 
#16
Well, over the past couple weekends I have been pulling other stuff off the truck that won't be needed with the new engine such as the engine wiring harness, engine ECU, ABS modulator and a few other things. In the process of removing those things I discovered some rust issues where the wheel well meets the firewall on both sides. Dirt and leaves can collect in this area which, along with the fact that there are many seams concentrated in this area and the sealant Rover used has dried out and started to crack has led to this rust issue. This prompted me to remove the washer bottle, clutch master cylinder and brake master cylinder and vacuum booster. I also discovered that the clutch master cylinder will need a rebuild. Below are some of the pics of the rust damage areas after I cut out the cancer:

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Here's a pic of my mad metal working skillz using a dead blow hammer and a piece of wood:

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Some pics of the patches welded in:

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Finally, hit it with primer and then some white enamel:

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I went back after I took these photos and filled in the seams with all purpose, non-silicone adhesive-sealant.

There are some more photos on the photobucket page: Here

So, driver side rust is fixed. Onto the passenger side next weekend. Fun fun fun!! After rust has been repaired, I'l be starting on cutting the old engine mounts off and fitting the new ones to the frame. More to come.
 
#19
Well, progress has been slow/tedious due to the rust problems and weather. You know how rust goes, the more you dig, the more you find. Anyways, I've got both sides repaired the best they're gonna get now, I just have a little painting/caulking to do before its completely done. I also have been able over the past two weeks to get the old mounts cut off the frame and the new ones welded into place with the help of a template. I'm not exactly positive the position is correct so they are only half burned in until I can test fit the engine/transmission. Next steps are to get the new brake lines/clutch line made up, and to put everything back on that I had to take off to fix the rust. This weekend won't see any more progress because it's my anniversary, but hopefully progress will pick up speed soon. I'm getting antsy not having it finished yet, which is good for motivation. I'll get some more pictures taken the next time I'm working on it.
 
#20
Well, its been a while since I've done an update. There has been some forward progress made. New engine/transmission have been mated together and lowered into the truck. However, it appears as if the engine mounts are in the wrong location, by about half an inch or so. Of course the only instructions for the mounting template were: "Use template to locate mounts on frame and weld". So much for that. I expected that this would more than likely happen so they are only half welded in, less to grind out. My next plan of attack is to mount the transmission where it needs to be and use that to locate the engine longitudinally in the chassis. I'll then mount the radiator and fan shroud and install the fan to get the vertical position correct. Hopefully this will get the engine in the truck properly.

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